• New Member From the Chicago Burbs

Posted: **Mon Jun 01, 2015 2:57 pm**

Hello All, Tom Peck aka: HighVelocity here, the newest 360 aficionado to the forum. I’ll start off with a brief bio. I’ve been a Subaru driver since 1989 when I bought a 3 door Justy, I’m now driving Subaru number 5 a 2015 Forester XTP.

About four or five years ago I first saw a 360 sedan at a car show in Vinton, IA. Two years ago I saw a van and a sedan at a show in Kenosha, WI and I started to get that funny feeling deep in the gut. Last winter at a show in Chandler, AZ the hook was set and the quest to become a driving member had shifted to “Overtop”.

I’m just recently retired from an engineering career and I’m looking for a challenge to keep my skills sharp. I’ve been told that this could be a high leap even for the very experienced.

See ya on the board
HighVelocity

Posted: **Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:22 pm**

Highvelocity wrote:Hello All, Tom Peck aka: HighVelocity here, the newest 360 aficionado to the forum. I’ll start off with a brief bio. I’ve been a Subaru driver since 1989 when I bought a 3 door Justy, I’m now driving Subaru number 5 a 2015 Forester XTP.

About four or five years ago I first saw a 360 sedan at a car show in Vinton, IA. Two years ago I saw a van and a sedan at a show in Kenosha, WI and I started to get that funny feeling deep in the gut. Last winter at a show in Chandler, AZ the hook was set and the quest to become a driving member had shifted to “Top Gear”.

I’m just recently retired from an engineering career and I’m looking for a challenge to keep my skills sharp. I’ve been told that this could be a high leap even for the very experienced.

See ya on the board
HighVelocity

Welcome! Subaru 360's should be sweetcake for HighVelocity !

Posted: **Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:25 pm**

Welcome Tom !!! You should fit nicely in the this group. Are you on a quest for a sedan, van or truck???

Posted: **Mon Jun 01, 2015 3:42 pm**

Welcome! No one said pictures, so I'll do it. Post pictures. Lots of pictures.

Posted: **Mon Jun 01, 2015 4:24 pm**

Tom - welcome to The Club!
We exist to help one another
keep our 360s on the road and
running on BOTH cylinders.

Ed

Posted: **Mon Jun 01, 2015 6:04 pm**

Welcome Tom. Ditto what the ones above me said. Also, add your location in the column on the left.

Posted: **Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:40 pm**

Welcome Tom!

This is the place to learn about em..
Then you can make your educated decision on what's good or beyond a challenge.

Glad to see you could make it onto the forum.

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 6:14 am**

Welcome, Fellow engineer here. I think after you get used to these cars you will appreciate the engineering that went into them. When you consider they took basically a snowmobile engine and used it to produce a cheap, small, light people mover that satisfied the market for which it was designed for 20+ years, It's fairly amazing. Granted the culture has a lot to do with the success.

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 7:57 am**

Welcome Tom.... from downunder. With engineering behind you, look forward to discovering some unique features of this Club's favourite series of tiny vehicles!

Cheers,

Ian

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 1:38 pm**

You're in the right place to find one!

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 3:02 pm**

I'm looking for a Sedan. Here's a question, as a long time member of the "National Corvette Restorers Society (NCRS) our goal was to always restore to factory original state. My question is, is converting a 360 Sedan to a convertible acceptable or do we as a club prefer to keep the cars original?

Tom

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 3:17 pm**

I don't think we as a club have a single collective opinion.
A few restore to original, but there are plenty of people on here doing all sorts of resto-mod projects.
Pretty much no matter what you do with one, we're all going to cheer you on.

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 3:26 pm**

Highvelocity wrote:I'm looking for a Sedan. Here's a question, as a long time member of the "National Corvette Restorers Society (NCRS) our goal was to always restore to factory original state. My question is, is converting a 360 Sedan to a convertible acceptable or do we as a club prefer to keep the cars original?

Tom

Subaru 360's were never loved and coveted from the "get go" like Corvettes, so any 360 saved and driving is to be celebrated . Our standards are (...ahem...) very low. Original is super nice, however, just a running, driving, stopping 360 is truly amazing !

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 4:30 pm**

^ Post of the Week!

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 7:16 pm**

I think the focus of the club is contained in the club's name. We're all about driving the vehicles, whether they're restored to original or not.

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 8:02 pm**

There was a factory convertible... you could try to aim toward something like that.

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 8:57 pm**

Rag top 360's are awesome!

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 10:53 pm**

There was a member in Europe that made a blue convertible from a sedan. The top slide down channels on the sides & looked good up or down. It may be in the very old posts. Me, I'm old school & work at making them as close as possible to original for the next generation, but also like customs, paint & chrome.
Anyone remember the convertible, I think he used some Mustang top bows???

Posted: **Tue Jun 02, 2015 11:29 pm**

if i remember correctly he slid the bows manually in the rubber channel. that was a good solution but i cant imagne it was either easy to do in a rush nor durable enough for frequent usage.

The best bet would be to beg a member with factory bows and hinges to help document some dimentional details.

There is only one person on the forum with true blue Subaru convertible components on his sedan.

Posted: **Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:21 am**

That was Leon from Denmark I believe. Here is his phptobucket site.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v110/ ... aru%20360/

Posted: **Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:25 am**

here's one !

Posted: **Wed Jun 03, 2015 10:48 am**

The blue car shows the rear window as stationary, the yellow cars shows the rear window folded. I assume the yellow is the factory design? You just have to love a ragtop!!

Tom

Posted: **Wed Jun 03, 2015 11:16 am**

The blue top was created by Leon and uses the original channel and rubber of the "hard top". Leon created the entire package for his blue subie.

Posted: **Wed Jun 03, 2015 11:30 am**

Anyone know the measurements on the folding frame?

Posted: **Wed Jun 03, 2015 1:33 pm**

The ragtop assembly (frame, linkage, latches, mounts, hardware, top and rubber extrusion) look to be good simple design, all we need is a car to take a few measurements. So far I can't find a car with the top up to see how much they down sized the rear window. Bottom line this a very doable project.

Tom

Posted: **Wed Jun 03, 2015 2:05 pm**

Good find Mark.. thats the one I was referring to.

lol

I have photos of the bows and hinges and latches here somewhere I just don't have measurements.

Posted: **Fri Jun 05, 2015 10:14 pm**

Highvelocity wrote:The ragtop assembly (frame, linkage, latches, mounts, hardware, top and rubber extrusion) look to be good simple design, all we need is a car to take a few measurements. So far I can't find a car with the top up to see how much they down sized the rear window. Bottom line this a very doable project.

Tom

David Brower lived in NC many years ago and made a convertible
top frame assy, don't know where he lives now but he was as the
SW Little car Show here in Tucson in April.
If you can find him he likely has all the plans he used to make his.

Ed

Posted: **Fri Jun 05, 2015 10:28 pm**

Welcome to the club ! We wanna see pics

Posted: **Sat Jun 06, 2015 10:02 pm**

^ I don't think he found a car yet

Posted: **Sat Jun 06, 2015 10:44 pm**

Dave "all caps" Brower is still in NC, I don't keep in touch with him, but he has a bunch of micros. The vert I THINK you are talking about was a slider for his Freeway

Posted: **Sun Jun 07, 2015 12:49 am**

I talk to David "rimspoke" Brower often, he rolled his 360, 25 years ago due to a dry rotted blown out tire. It was a total loss. No mention of it being a convertible.

Posted: **Sun Jun 07, 2015 1:55 pm**

I have found high detail pictures of a right hand drive ragtop, top up and top down. There is a member in our group that has a sedan only 5 miles from me in Belvidere, IL, does anyone know him?

Tom

Posted: **Sun Jun 07, 2015 7:01 pm**

I have the '65 parts book (in Japanese)
that shows the convertible top assy

It's on P. 49 of BOR or I can probably make
a scan with higher resolution and e-mail it
if someone wants it - also 2 pix of convertible
on P. 71 BOR

Ed

Posted: **Mon Jun 08, 2015 10:20 am**

The BOR gives the parts list but not dimensions. Is there anyone who has the dimensions?

Posted: **Wed Jun 10, 2015 5:03 am**

Perhaps David "Wire Wheel" Brower ?

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